CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Jim Boylan has sued the organization on claims that his 2018 exit from the staff amounted to age discrimination.

Boylan, 62, filed the two-count complaint in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on Thursday. The lawsuit names the Cavaliers’ parent companies, owner Dan Gilbert and General Manager Koby Altman, and accuses them of committing age discrimination and aiding and abetting in age discrimination.

Boylan is represented by Christopher Thorman of the Cleveland-based Thorman Petrov Group law firm. He is asking for a minimum of $25,000 plus lost income, as well as a chance to take his claims to a jury.

A Cavaliers official said in a written statement that Boylan’s claim was frivolous and outrageous.

Boylan cites in the complaint a June 17, 2018 voicemail from then-head coach Tyronn Lue, in which Lue informed Boylan that Altman was not going to pick up his option for the 2018-2019 season.

Lue explained that Altman did not want to pay for Boylan’s salary, the complaint said.

“He wants to go younger in that position and, you know, find somebody who’s a grinder and younger in that position,” the lawsuit quotes Lue as saying.

Lue says later on in the message that “that’s what Koby’s thinking is, and that’s kind of where Dan was at,” an apparent reference to Gilbert, the complaint says.

Altman then told Boylan in a later conversation that the organization, Altman and Gilbert all wanted someone younger in Boylan’s position and the decision was not related to his job performance, the complaint says.

After Boylan lost his job, the organization retained and promoted younger coaches.

Jason Hillman, the Cavs' chief of staff and team counsel, said in a statement that the the organization had a right under Boylan’s contract not to pick up his option.

“This frivolous lawsuit is simply an opportunistically-timed effort at a shameless cash grab,” Hillman said. “The team will seek immediate dismissal of this disappointing, unwarranted and baseless claim.”

Andrew Pollis, a professor at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law, said Lue’s voicemail could offer Boylan a “smoking gun."

Plaintiffs in most age discrimination lawsuits have to lean on indirect evidence, like performance evaluations that showed the worker had no issues carrying out their job and that the organization replaced the plaintiff with someone significantly younger, to make the case that they were fired based on their age, Pollis said.

Very few lawsuits feature a recorded admission by an authority figure that an organization wanted to replace an employee with someone younger, Pollis said.

Pollis also said that the Cavs could seize on Lue’s statements that Altman did not want to pay for Boylan’s salary to make the case that “younger" really meant they were looking for someone “cheaper.”

Boylan, a former NCAA coach, was hired by the Cavaliers as an assistant in 1992 and worked with the team until 1997. He bounced around several organizations before landing back with the Cavaliers in 2013, the complaint says.

Lue was fired as the Cavaliers head coach earlier this week after the team was winless in its first six games.